In the past year or two, several users have suggested a stickied thread for live reviews. Well, here we go, I think the idea is great, and might add some quality posting to the board. I won't sticky this one, though; if the thread is worthy and interesting enough, it will stay on the front page without being sticky, right?

Now, the rules are simple: write a review of a gig you've recently attended. The vetting process used in the approvals and rejections of album reviews on the main site will not, of course, exist here, but I will keep an eye on this and prune out bullshit (and bullshitters...). Comments, jokes and such are welcome, but anyone turning this into shit-flinging contest will notice that it's my thread, and shit-flinging will make me a sad panda. Sad pandas turn violent. So let's keep this clean, nice and polite. I will ruthlessly punish anyone insulting others here, including "justified" attacks on metalcore fans. Remember, Napero wants you to learn respect, and you don't want to make Napero sad. Napero's mom has said that thou shalt not make Napero a sad panda.

And oh, let's keep this metal, OK? The rule is simple: if the band can be found in the MA, it's eligible.

To get the ball rolling, let me tell you about yesterday evening. I saw Stam1na live.

Stam1na is one of the few worthy metal bands in the world with "alternative" justifiably tagged on their genre field on the MA. Their blend of thrash metal with angry and rather original rhythmic frolicking might sound annoying on the first spin, but the core of the music is indeed founded on extremely skillfully executed (thrash?) metal, and has an almost annoying tendency to glue random song fragments to the mind. I suggest sampling their MySpace for a few songs, as the "alt" tag and the silly way they spell their suggest mallcore or metalcore; the truth is something very, very different. Their local following in Finland is loyal, and even if the songs are really difficult to sing along, the crowd usually makes an immensely skilled work on yelling along.

Yesterday's gig was their second after releasing their newest album, Viimeinen Atlantis, and I was completely unfamiliar with about 1/3 of the songs. They seem to work hellishly well, and I have a feeling the album is excellent, even if might drift slightly to a more melodic direction. Also, the band's playing and mixing were once again impeccable. The precision they display when playing the highly demanding rhythmical parts of the music is exceptional. Stam1na is a band definitely worth seeing live, even if you miss a lot if you can't make any sense of the lyrics. They have unseated Mokoma and Rotten Sound from the throne reserved for the best semi-extreme metal live act in Finland, and compete with Amorphis for the title among all metal here. I will definitely see them again many, many times. Worth more than the 16 € I spent on the ticket, trust me.

And yeah, a rather drunken Eicca Toppinen of Apocalyptica fame kept trying to lean on me for support for about 20 minutes. Judging from the last time I saw a semi-celebrity on a gig in Helsinki, he's roughly 78 cm taller than Ari Koivunen.

9½/10.

_________________Chest wounds suck (when properly inflicted).
-Butch-

Last edited by Napero on Sun Mar 21, 2010 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Haven't been to many shows recently, almost saw Nile and Behemoth when they came down, but I forgot the date of the shows, didn't buy tickets, and had no one who could go with me, as the four metalhead freinds I have either have overprotective parents, are poor, or live in Texas.

However, one of the best shows I've been to is Cattle Decapitation last year. The openers were fantastic. I discovered Destroy the Opposition, a local groovy deathcore band there, they put on a great show. Then the technical death/grind band Bedlam of Cacophony, which was also wonderful, along with some other openers and free CDs. I was also subjected to the boredom that was Book of Black Earth. Unfortunatly, I only got to see two songs of Cattle's set, because it was around 12:30 and my dad was getting sick of sitting in the car. :/
Those two songs were amazing though. I remember I ate a shitload of limes that nigh.

the last concert I've been to was Kataklysm in Amsterdam, supported by Belphegor and Suicidal Angels.

the latter started the evening and did a pretty good job at that. I never heard of them before seeing them on the line-up, so I checked out a few songs on their myspace and even though their name is quite lame, the music turned out to be more than acceptable. they play thrash at breakneck speeds without being sloppy and although their songs all sounded somewhat the same, it was a very enjoyable ride indeed.

next up were Belphegor, the reason I got my ticket for that evening. they played a kinda short (7 songs or so) but tight set. I thought they would play a lot off their new album, but it turned out to be only one, namely Veneratio Diaboli - I Am Sin. although I thought that was one of the weaker tracks on the album (after Der Geistertreiber, of course), the track was definitely a lot more pleasant live. most of the tracks they played were from Bondage Goat Zombie, and while that isn't my favourite Belphegor album, their set was nothing less than great. the few Belphegor fans (compared to those who came to see Kataklysm) who had come out that evening all seemed to agree. however, I was a bit disappointed they did not play Swarm Of Rats.

after that is was time for Kataklysm, the headliner of the evening. now I did not expect too much from them, but I can safely say that their show was the second worst I've ever seen (the worst was Trivium supporting Slayer). their music was nothing short of boring, with every song sounding pretty much the same. but the most annoying of all was the crowd. these goddamn morons went completely apeshit over the monotonous chugga-chugga breakdown shit riffs of utter fucking boredom. they kinda reminded me of a bunch of fifteen-year-old kids 'moshing' to Waking The Cadaver. they also had the uncontrollable urge to sing a retarded song about 'beer and titties' in between every single song, and the band thought it was awesome, probably because they didn't have the slightest clue that song is like the favourite song of drunken Dutch trailer trash. the few songs that I did somewhat like couldn't save the horrible experience in any way, resulting in me walking out before they had ended their set. I thought I could much better spend my time smoking pot, and so I did.

all in all, it was a very nice evening when you disregard the abominable experience of seeing Kataklysm live. if I would grade the evening as a whole, the awful Kataklysm experience would make it seem like the evening was barely ok-ish, so I'll grade each band on their own:

First off, I havn't been to a concert venue this small since Kamelot/Epica in 2006.

First band was a Metalcore band. Don't know the name, didn't know what they sang about, didn't care. But they looked like they had fun and where there for a good time, so I give themt that.

Second band was a Deathcore band I think was called "Thoughs who're buried Beneath" or something, from Portland. They played with intencity and speed, but again, I'm not a fan of Deathcore. The singer mentioned that one song was about Ted Bundy and it was about Rape and Murder. Ok...

I actually left during that band and went back into the bar area. I was shocked to meet 2 out of 3 members of Ceremonial Castings there having a drink and talked to them (they remembered me from the interview nearly a year ago).

Next was Lighting Swords of Death. I wasn't expecting much, but they where actually pretty decent, though nothing extrodinary as far as Black metal goes. The guitarist kept telling the sound guy to turn down a speaker infront of him and after a while, he eventually got pissed and slammed it down on the floor. Also, the singer did look scary all bald and wearing spiked leather gloves, but it kind of dosn't help that his pants where so low that when he turned arround we could see his Tighty Wighties.

Next was Septic Flesh and I managed to get right up agains the stage for this one. Good god, they where just as awesome as when I saw them open for Cradle of Filth. I've heard complaints that Seth hardly plays his bass, that was BS that night as I saw him playing most of the songs accuratly. I could tell that the crowd wasn't sure who they where, but they quickly won them over fast. I was also pleased that I managed to get a "One more song" chant going after there last song Persopolis. My only complaint was that they played only 1 song from that wasn't from Communion and the rest where. They really need to do a US headlining tour so they can have as large a set to do them justice. Also what was cool was the drummer had instead of a double bass, had a second snaire drum for his left foot.

And finally was Behemoth. I stayed at the spot I had right upfront and lucky me, Orion was right infront of me the entire time. That dude is fucking ripped. One of my proudest moments in life now is that I was right infront if him when he did his bass solo from "At the left hand ov god". Also, not meaning to sound weird, I got to touch 3 out of 4 of the members. I also made eye contact with Nergal for about 3 seconds. If I could have a complaint for Behemoth, it was how they ended. Lucifer is fucking awesome, by all means, but I always loved how they ended with "I Got Erection", just kind of a fun means to go out. Also, after ending the song and walking behind the speakers, the band simply just walked to the back and that was it. I think a more classic curtan call would be better, but that's me.

Anyways, that was a fucking awesome night, my neck hurt for a good 5 days from so much headbanging and I was horse for atleast a day, maybe 2. All worth it. Plus, Orion's blood spitting part of Chant for Ezkaton jsut covered my hand, I need to get that pic uploaded. Great night all together, my cousin even had fun and he's really not into most of the extreme Metal scene.

[Septic Flesh] really need to do a US headlining tour so they can have as large a set to do them justice.

Absolutely this. I caught the Edmonton date and they absolutely destroyed. Well, I might as well do my own review.

The openers were Weapon and Shining. I only caught the last half of Weapon's set, but they were damn good. A very capable thunderous performance that actually inspired me to check out their CD.

Shining were next, and although I've heard some bad things about them I was fairly impressed. Kvanforth is actually a damn fine singer, douchebag or not, and their bassist really showed his chops with a wild solo at the end. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the stuff, but it was still a good performance.

Septic Flesh absolutely stole the show. I was yelling my lungs out as soon as they opened with Unbeliever, and didn't stop until they finished Persepolis. Undoubtedly the heaviest band I've seen live, the chugging riff in Anubis actually knocked a case of beer off the cart in front of me and made it explode across the floor. Great crowd interaction as well, despite Seth's limited English; he kept yelling at us to show our "Canadian metallic horns!" and conjured the crowd into a wall of death at the "burn this city" part of Persepolis. Magnificent performance, and I'd love to see them do a headlining tour. My only complaint is that it was too damn short.

Behemoth did put on a damn fine show though. My neck was too wrecked from SF to do much headbanging, but I did manage to dig into my reserves to windmill a bit to Chant for Eschaton. Nergal did his usual bible-ripping, and actually took the time to fist-bump a guy during Slaves Shall Serve.

I envy you bastards that have seen Septic Flesh. One of my favorite bands, I didn't get to see them open for Cradle or Behemoth (also two of my favorite bands).

I'm actually okay with them just playing Communion stuff and a couple from Sumerian Demons. The old albums are cool but those two releases stand high above. Question: I saw a video where the clean vocals were on the playback with the orchestra, the bald guitarist that does the "gothy" singing wasn't present. Was this the case at your shows?

Speaking of Behemoth, there's little better than experiencing them live. I saw them with Keep of Kalessin and Dimmu Borgir and they just dominated. Slaves Shall Serve makes me want to kill myself headbanging.

This is a good thread idea and I don't want to see it die, so I'll post my thoughts on the second Wolves in the Throne Room Sydney show.

This gig was a few weeks ago and meant to post about it sooner, but I've been busy at my first couple weeks at uni and just lazy in general. However, the gig is still pretty fresh in my mind. You will all have to excuse me, because I am by no stretch a reviewer and my gigging experience is limited, so my description will probably be pretty lame and contain a lot of rambling.

The show was held in a pub, so everything was very intimate and I got to talk to some of the band members throughout the night, which was really cool. The first band to play was Agents of Abhorrence, who are a grindcore act from Melbourne. Pretty typical grind from my understanding (which is admittedly pretty small when it comes to grindcore) but they had a lot of energy and played a frantic set. I just wish the crowd got more into it, every one just stood around watching and I think I was the only person who head banged at any point. The lack of reaction is probably due to the fact that grind seems to be pretty disliked in the local metal scene. At least I haven't met any metalheads other than MikeyC in my area that like any of the stuff. Still, the band had some furious riffs and were pretty unrelenting in the speed department. The drummer was a maniac, performing quite impressively behind the kit and taking some vocal duties, where he would just yell and scream like a nutter. Sure, they were probably pretty generic, but I enjoyed them for what they were.

Next band was Monarch, from France, who I was really looking forward to seeing. I'd heard one of their records, Dead Men Tell No Tales and a bunch of their myspace tracks and liked what I heard. I'd never heard drone before, so this band represented something new to me. And no matter how much of their material I could have listened to before hand, I could not have been prepared for their live show. You don't watch or hear Monarch live; you feel them. They started the show with Emilie (the vocalist), turning some kind of master volume knob upward slowly. Gradually, the wall of feedback built up with the guitarist and bassist standing in front of their amps, fostering this impenetrable sound. They played one song that went for half an hour, I'm guessing. It consisted of heavy as fuck chords, that shook your whole body, lots of feedback and Emilie screaming her lungs out. Seriously, she was incredible. She used a crap load of effects pedals to get a certain sound, but the passion was there. You could see in her face, more than anything else. After about 30 or so minutes of immense drone/doom, the song ended the way it started, except Emilie was turning the volume down instead of up. After the noise had faded into nothingness, there was about a second pause of complete silence and then the crowd exploded into applause and cheering. It was a brilliant moment.

At this point, I'm more blown away by Monarch than I am anticipating Wolves, but my excitement returns when I see the band members on stage, surrounded by candlelight. They spend a few minutes getting the sound right and then tweak it some more after the first song. But for the remainder of the set, they sounded great. It should also be noted, that while I adore Two Hunters, I'm not all that familiar with WitTR material. I've heard the newest album through a few times and know what it sounds like on a whole, but still can't recognise individual songs. I've never heard Diadem of 12 Stars and the less I remember from Malevolent Grain, the better. So, I don't know the names of the first or last songs on the setlist, but if I was to take a guess, the first one was from the newest album and the last from Diadem. The two in the middle were 'Dear Artio' and 'Vastness and Sorrow'. As I said before, after the first song, they got their sound just right, with both guitars being at a nice level; loud enough highlight the great tone, but not too the point where everything became a distorted mess. Nathan's vocals where also easily heard amongst everything else, which was great because I love his vocals and the drums sounded real nice too. There was no bassist to be heard, but Wolves have never needed a bassist. Even on the albums where there is one, it never did anything interesting. So, as they moved into 'Dear Artio' everything sounded great. On the first song, Nathan's vocals where too quiet and one of the guitars too loud. Even with this improved sound, it took me a minute to recognise that it was 'Dear Artio', because said track is an ambient one on the album. Here they were playing it with loud, distorted guitars. An interesting twist, but it sounded real good and it transitioned beautifully into 'Vastness and Sorrow'.

All members of the band played really well and were able to replicate what they do on the album brilliantly. Even the vocals were a near perfect match to what you hear on the studio versions of the songs and that's pretty impressive. It was good to see that the crowd was getting more into things by this point, quite a few people where head banging and nobody was moshing (which of course, was appropriate for a WitTR gig). The show ended with the band putting down their instruments and going around blowing out the candles that lit their stage, one by one. Okay, something like that comes off as being pretty pretensions, but whatever. I made it out of the gig with a candle to take home and chatted with the drummer briefly.

Overall, the most fun I've had at a gig was Screamfest, but this was certainly the most intimate show I've attended.

_________________Magic happens.So does cot death.

- Tim Minchin

Last edited by OlioTheSmall on Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

I suggest making it a rule to write the band name(s) of what's being reviewed in bold at the beginning of the post, to make it easier for those who browse through the thread looking for bands they find interesting/skipping bands they don't find interesting.

This band was certainly something interesting. The four of them (guitarist, drummer, bassist, and keyboardist) all came on stage. You could see some strong Malmsteen influence immediately because the guitar player was pretty much playing a signature Malmsteen guitar and based upon his solos, it's clear he loved Malmsteen. Then the singer comes out, and this man likely worships the ground Alice Cooper walks on. He came out in a straight jacket all tied up. Eventually he broke free and pretended to strangle the guitarist during a solo. The music itself was decent. At times it was really good Power Metal and at other times it just felt like boring Hard Rock, with some Metal elements thrown in. The singer has a high-pitched voice but he hit a pretty ear-splitting scream that was far louder than anything else that night. The first few songs were boring, but the last two were really good. Fun to watch but certainly nothing I would listen to. 6/10

Powerglove

I am not a Powerglove fan, but I was interested to hear them. I had never heard their brand of video game and awesome movies/cartoons/whatever-influenced Metal. Well I was a little disappointed that they were pretty much a gimmick band. They come out with these huge outfits on and start playing. Eventually they started throwing swords and things in the audience. I actually found the music to be very boring. The last two songs, again, were worth hearing however. I think they were Mario Minor and the Power Rangers Theme which were really cool. It was awesome hearing everyone sing "Go-Go Power Rangers!!!". Still, it was a disappointing show from them. 3/10

HammerFall

Before I start this review, it should be known that I became a HammerFall fan in October of 2006. They slowly grew to be one of my favorite bands and I listen to them more frequently than any other band. Much like every other person going to this tour, I had been waiting for this for several years. They break out into Punish and Enslave with some nice synchronized headbanging. When Joacim's vocals came in, it felt like they were compressed or something. At certain points, his voice sounded weird, and at other's it sounded fine. I'm really not sure what the deal with that was, maybe it sounded fine to others. Between songs, Joacim was hilarious. I really enjoyed his little speeches. I was disappointed however, because they all felt the need to leave the stage after every song. To me, it just seemed like a time waster. Still, this was HammerFall, and I wanted it to be good. To my surprise, Pontus played Stefan's solos quite well and even kept them pretty similar for the most part. This was great to hear because it was my biggest fear for this show. At one point, Joacim was giving his little intro speech before they played Life is Now. Just before they started, I saw Anders press something (likely "play") on a computer. Obviously he missed or something because they screwed up the intro and had to restart it. I personally have never seen a computer used at a concert and obviously it had to be going into everyone's ear because all of the random breaks and riffs were played in perfect time, without Anders counting in with a hi-hat. This was kind of a disappoint, because I was always under the impression that HammerFall was really tight live. Nevertheless, they played a ton of great songs and a great set all-around. Some songs that I really didn't think would work live (Rebel Inside and Secrets) worked out really well. It was a lot of fun, and I would definitely go see them again, but it certainly was not what I was expecting. 8/10

Frostbitten Kingdom was a positive surprise, and I actually bought their album after they finished. Death/black, approximately halfway between the two, and a good live performance. The only complaint I really have is on the way the vocalist introduced the songs: his way of speaking was like that of a mildly drunken 13-year old, and I'd suggest the band either make him shut up completely, or let one of the other band members do the talking instead. It was surreal, really, because his vocal work was quite good.

Skyclad made me convinced that folk metal is NOT inherently bad or stupid. The mixing was off, and the sound was extremely bass-heavy, but the show was fun, and the band delivered. It might be that the band's music is often way less than 50% actual metal, but that's beside the point. A good show is a good show, even if it's someone tap-dancing to the sound of his own farts, and this was WAY better than that. I couldn't discern what the vocalist talked about between the songs, mostly, but he seemed like a funny fellow. To me, most of his speeches were something like "Gurglewurglemumble fucking Bal-Sagoth juddaduddahubblebubble Sheffield yacklecackleshmackle fish & chips..." I got their new album, as well.

There was Bal-Sagoth, too, but I left before they started. I don't like Power Cosmic, the only album of theirs I have, and I still had the aftershocks of a food poisoning grumbling at 3 Richters, and I thought I don't need that. I got a kebab instead and went home.

I've actually been, for a month or so now, been doing live show reviews for the webzine I run for the record label I run, Lunatic Pandora Webzine. Pretty much every concert I attend, metal or otherwise, I review them all.

I couldn't have gotten the news at a better time. It's been quite some time since a show (or any Earthly event, for that matter) has impacted me in such a way that I would consider it profoundly life-altering in any degree. So of course last night when I'd initially heard that Wolves In The Throne Room - a black metal act which I fortunately have had the opportunity to catch live once before - were playing a show the next day my interest got peaked. Even more so when the next pieces of the puzzle were laid before me: it was only $5, Salome and Shrinebuilder were also on the bill, and all this was going to go down at NYU.

Yeah, my jaw dropped also.

Someone had the very good fucking idea of taking 3 bands whose music conveys a sort of transcendental quality to it, and you plant them in a well-renowned facility of educational intake, the result being 50 years down the line future CEO's and tycoons and cybernetic organ harvesters will be controlling every aspect of your insignificant lives while spinning black metal and doom metal.

For the record, I spent the majority of the show sitting, cross-legged, closed-eyed, meditating while under the influence of dextromethorphan and cannabis. ;/

Now, on with the show review!

SALOME

diSEMBOWELMENT would be so proud. They, the accidental grandfathers of death/doom metal initially began with the intent of having some fun, and didn't think much of the fact that they were mixing two extremes of their day: (what we consider) old school death metal, and doom metal. And it was pretty fucking heavy. However, one absolute truth that we all know is that time continues. And in time, trascendence is usually acheived, out with the old, in with the new essentially.

Salome are quite possibly one of my absolute favorite bands from here on out, and surprisingly this is the first time I've ever even heard their music or of them for that matter! This is extreme, sludgey doom that plods along while crushing anything and everything in its path with a lysergic stomp. The riffs were absolutelty devastating; it's hard to believe that such grand, crushing sounds could be acheived with the simple formula of a pick hitting a few strings. If a blind individual were present at the show today, they'd probably think fucking Armageddon arrived.

Ah, another aspect of this band which I must address: The vocals.

I admit it. I was one of those dudes who deep down felt that there would be no chance in hell that a woman would ever manage to pull off some Lord Worm-esque vocals or some Silencer-shrieks, well. I mean, the only female metal vocalists that ever get recognition are Otep and that chick from Arch Enemy, both of whom are quite subpar. So going with that, my views in that area remained pretty consistent throughout high school.

And tonight is where reality just pimpsmacked me, WITH the baby powder.

Check this: some of the most tortured, disparaged, morbid shrieks, slicing through the dark from an undetermined direction. Whoever or whatever is the source of this must be either criminally insane, or decided to listen to Stalaagh and Wormphlegm back-to-back while they were smoking Salvia. Maybe both. All I know, is that Salome's vocalist Kat (who has lent her voice to Agoraphobic Nosebleed) are among one of the fucking best I have heard in a long time. As I'd mentioned earlier, I was in a particularly deep state of psychotropic meditation, so the only time I laid my eyes upon the band themselves happened to be the time that I astral projected briefly. So I only found out that those sickeningly great vocals were from a chick after their set had ended, and goddamn did it make things all the better. I never thought I'd see the day when diSEMBOWELMENT would lose their spot as my absolute favorite band and be tied with a little-known female-fronted sludge/doom trio from Virginia.

Magnificent, shamanistic soundscapes intricately crafted via time-stretching tremolo picked riffs soaked in everlasting melancholy in a crystal clear stream flowing during Spring and the howls of the sad souls of the Earth.

That is the essence of Wolves In The Throne Room. The band describe their sound as "purifying black metal" or "transformative black metal", titles which could not be more accurate in their descriptions. Being that I was pretty much the only person who decided to break away from the norms of headbanging and moshing, calmly sat through their set and allowed their purifying sounds to wash over me, cleansing me as I sat paralyzed in a shamanistic trance. (The next few parts are all hypothetical... -coughcoughshiftyeyes-) I decided to kick it up a notch by pulling out my trusty one-hitter pipe (lovingly nicknamed Quistis), filled it with some particularly high-grade cannabis which I'd ascertained from a friend while I'd been waiting on line, raised the flame to it, and inhaled profusely. Seconds turned to minutes, turned to days, to years, for the longer I held in this cannabyssmal voidvapor, the more it seemed that the DXM was mercilessly dropkicking my existence, and judging by the intensity that this particularly bleak yet tranquil dirge was encompassing me in, I knew that the next pull would be what many would call 'the point of no return'.

Fuck it.

I exhaled, and as the fumes eventually cleared out, so had my mind. I existed, not as myself, but as just... to make it short, I experienced ego death while listening to Wolves In The Throne Room, and I couldn't have been any happier.

The material they played I believe was off both Diadem of 12 Stars as well as Two Hunters. Though I have no complaints, I would have liked to have seen them play through the entirety of their Black Cascade material akin to the show they did at Death By Audio in Brooklyn a year or so back where they played the entire Two Hunters album. As with the previous band, Wolves' sound was particularly rich, full, complete, and definitely fucking loud. I still can't feel my body as I'm typing up this review.

This is music to meditate to in conjunction with hallucinogens, most definitely.

Supergroups. You've heard the term before; it usually entails a few popular musicians coming together to 'collaborate' and effectively become this awesome force which would not have been had the alliance not been made. Up until this point the only "supergroup" I'd really listened to was Twilight (a black metal band which consisted of members from Leviathan, Draugar, Krieg, Nachtmystium, Xasthur, Isis and The Atlas Moth) and continued on with the mentality that most attempts will result in nothing more than bland cheesiness and utter fail, and the idea of a supergroup only sounds good on paper.

Take out the bongs, kiddos. THIS is truly the epitomy of stoner doom metal. THIS is the only stoner doom you'll ever need. Sludgey riffs interwoven with halcyonic melodies and an ethereal sort of vibe are the only tools these guys utilize to build their aural shrine. Oh, and I'm assuming entheogens. Lots and lots of entheogens. And by alot, I mean a whole football fields worth of psilocybin mushrooms and cannabis and salvia and maybe some DMT too. Stylistically, they are similar to Om the most but have a much more distinct roughness to them, with plenty of headbangable moments arising quite often amongst the meditant soundscapes they create. Get a hold of their debut album ASAP, you won't be dissapointed!!

All in all, this was an extraordinary fucking show. Perfect line-up, perfect sound, awesome people, awesome trip, and a day which should damn well be in the history books. Fuck all this Lady GaGa and Soulja Boy bullshit. This is real music.

Special thanks to Lauren Jackcon, the alleged individual who organized this event from what I could gather. Thank you for turning what would've been an otherwise dull Thursday into one of the most kick-ass nights of the millenia. \m/

Update: Here is another review of the show by my very good friend and soon-to-be writer for the Lunatic Pandora Webzine, Stephen! Much more informative if I do say so myself and another testament as to how fucking amazing this night went: http://anetherealguitaristspath.blogspo ... -room.html

And judging from the raw, ugly assaults that these guys dish out, one could have rightfully guessed so. Personified by a clenched fist of hardcore, a punkish pissed off give-no-fuck-about-the-world attitude and just a hint of grind topping it all off, Backslider create music that wouldn't be out of place to accompany a post-apocalyptic citywide riot to. The crowd response started off weak, but 5 audial beatdowns later the floor was, for the most part, packed. Definitely one of the best opening bands I've seen in a while.

Backslider are the anthem for a disgruntled, agitated generation ready to smack you across the face with a tire iron.

This is one of those bands where the name is an accurate representation of their general sound.
The drummer dishes out some furious, blasting death consistently, complimenting the grinding guitar riffs that bring to mind Brutal Truth, all the while setting the stage for the vocalist to unleash his rage towards a world that deserves it. And rage never sounded this good. Midway through their set this journalist was nearly swallowed up into the throes of the rapidly growing pit these guys were invoking, much to my dismay. Surprisingly the bass was a huge benefactor in their sound, managing to stand out just as much as any other instrument. I have to hand it to them, musical competence and feeling were definitely present from each member. Next time these lunatic chainsaw butchers roll into town, you'll be sure to want to join in on the slaughter.

The excoriation of angels. The disembowelment of god. The complete and utter annihilation of all existence. Take that, Corrupted, Khanate, Wormphlegm, and diSEMBOWELMENT, mix them all together in a melting pot chocked full of the finest cannabis you can find, and you're not even halfway close to describing the devastating monolith that is Bloodkitt. Putting one doom band on a bill with predominately hardcore/grind bands sounds like a terrible idea.

It is not.

Although they only unleashed 2 songs from their arsenal, their mindfuck of an attack lasted nearly 45 minutes. The root of their sound is in time-stretching, sludgey doom metal, but fortunately they aren't one of those bands who restrict their style just because of their root genre. A very good portion of their set consisted of some particularly brutal death not unlike Gorgasm and a hint of black metal, all coming together in a sublime manner where nothing sounds out of place or "odd". It was pretty amusing watching people mosh in super slo-mo however. Their songs sound like they would have been just *perfect* to accompany the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki without a doubt. Check these fuckers out.

Fucking evil. An abhorrent old-school death metal march towards sheer insanity; they take it upon themselves to carry the torch of hatred. Flesh grinding riffs and godkilling black metal-esque vocals are the only psalms in the Church of The Communion. There really seems to be a huge grindcore overtone in this show thus far, without any of the 4 bands being a repeat of the other. In this case, an accurate description of them would be if Antaeus and Last Days Of Humanity joined together. When I came back in from a good bowl of weed I was astonished - the ENTIRE fucking floor were up and about! That itself is a testament to how sick these dudes are. Hell, the end of their set even consisted of a great drum solo beneath some droning, noisy feedback. They're apparently also playing Maryland Death Fest, so be sure to keep an eye and an ear out for them!

A hypersonic swarm of pestilence cloaks the land as the unbridaled, devastating force of the Unmen quartet repeatedly curbstomp your fucking face for the rest of eternity. This is music you go postal to. This is music you'd kick your snobby, arrogant boss in the nuts and toss him out of the 87th floor window to. The band had a great presence; their riffs oozed of nothing less than thrashing grind and grinding thrash. Sodom and Kreator have NOTHING on these guys. Even I ended up going batshit insane in the pit for the first time in the show. This is violence in its purest form, this is how a goddamn warzone sounds like.

P.S. I have never heard a band cover S.O.D.'s "Kill Yourself" as well as brilliantly as these guys.

_________________{:d:}

The eye can outstare neither the sun, nor death... if I sought God it was in delirium and in the delight of temptation.

I forgot to post on the Cult of Luna gig a couple of weeks ago. It was fun, too.

The fact that it was overlapping with an Olympic ice hockey game of the finnish team didn't seem to matter, the club was packed. What's more, a workmate of mine decided not to use his ticket, and 10 minutes into the game and 20 minutes into the gig, he realized that Finland had been bumfucked to 6-0 by the Yanks, and the sheer desperation and regret in his SMSs was palpable.

Anyway, it was the first "post" anything gig I've ever seen, and I must say it was worth it. Cult of Luna grew on me on a 5-hour drive in a snow storm, and while being on the road in silence, amidst dreamy and snowy scenery while Somewhere Along the Highway was playing was a musical, or rather, atmospheric, experience, the same in a club sounded like a questionable enterprise. It turned out to be rather brilliant: a bunch of beers and some Fernet Branca with Creme de Menthe was the correct medicine to tune in on the frequencies, so to speak.

Describing the gig is difficult, especially for someone like me, with little experience in the genre, but it must suffice to say that the point of the music if to induce a high-volume hypnotic effect, and damn, that worked. After 10 minutes, a friend of mine, even more of a newb in the field than I am, asked me jokingly if the band would soon stop tuning their instruments. His opinion changed gradually, I think, because his later comment was "It's like seeing a naked passed out pope on top of a crack whore: you know it's not right, but at the same time, it's difficult to look away."

The band was technically nearly perfect, and as loose as their songwriting sounds, the reproduction of the album tracks was excellent. As a side note, I counted a maximum of seven people on the stage at one time, and I think I was screwed out of the performance of one member. I want 2 euros back. Thank you.

Nah, in reality I will sticky this thread because due to its nature, it's in constant danger of falling into oblivion. We might get posts every couple of days, but I trust they will be worth the wait. Time will show if this is useful, and if not, I'll simply unsticky it.

Bunch of Singaporean bands playing a local show at some bar. (I was 17 at the time but got in masqueding as a roadie). There were several -core bands playing earlier, so I only arrived in time to see the last 3 bands.

Meltgsnow are a melodic death/goth band (without any shitty makeup or emo fringes, mind you) and their set was highly entertaining. Vocalist Dannie was the anchor of the band, switching gears from insanely energetic Dickinson-esque howls to darker, haunting styles. His stage presence and inter-song banter was excellent, and his performance spot-on. Jasmine(I believe her name is) from Meza Virs came up to do some guest vocals. Overall a rather enjoyable experience to see.

Ironfist was next. The self styled masters of Singapore sex metal, their brand of music is more for drunk headbanging fun than for silly wintry forest myspace backgrounds, and they did just that, getting the majority of the crowd heavily into their performance, even the foreign punk crowd who were there mainly for a quiet night of drinks were at the front, singing along to a Motorhead cover(guess which song). Strong covers, strong originals, their years of experience showed and they played a flawless yet extremely entertaining set, drawing the biggest response from the crowd so far.

Absence Of The Sacred headlined. Despite frontman Mike Priest being a lil stoned/hungover(hailed a cab then realised he had left his guitar upstairs), he was blazing away that night. Typical live favourite set (Cacalysts for Cataclysms, Empires of the Fallen), punctuated by an Atheist cover. Several technical difficulties, the clean channel suddenly underwent a huge volume spike in the middle of a song, forcing Priest to spend several minutes redialing the amps(lead guitarist Darren blazed out a couple of quick sweeps to keep the crowd entertained). With that out of the way, the band resumed their live melodeath assault, tight as hell and destructively catchy, as per all their releases. Though they don't play that many local gigs, I've never seen a disappointing set from them and that night was no exception.

Here's a quick'n'dirty review of Scion Rock Fest that I wrote the day after the fest... couldn't really be arsed to rewrite this into a long review so hopefully my brief impressions will be adequate for this thread.

Saviours - Started off decently, but the set was definitely overlong and they were probably wasted. After a certain point, there was no doubt that the vocalists' tattoos (arms/back/chest were covered with ink) were way more interesting than their set.

Thou - Awesome and entrancing but way way too brief with only three songs played. The vocalist came on stage in a button-up shirt and as my friend put it 'looked like a dad who just dropped off some kids' but by the end looked like he was about to eat us all alive—dude didn’t blink even once.

D.R.I. - HOLY SHIT!! I saw the legendary Dreh, enough said. How is it that (in my experience at least) older bands consistently outplay dudes that are half their age? This band has almost been around for thirty fucking years and it’s clear they haven’t skipped a beat since the old days.

Magrudergrind - I’ve seen them more times than I can count on one hand and this is the very first time I haven’t had a stagediver jump on my head—what a relief! It’s always heart-warming to see friends get received well by an audience, no exception here.

Brutal Truth - Too fucking brutal! An amp broke, some strings snapped, mic wires got tangled around some dude’s legs, monitors got kicked all over the stage, and I ended up drawing some blood. Unfortunately, because of technical difficulties, the set started getting long and honestly started dragging. On another note, I didn’t realize how fucking tall Dan Lilker is—at least 12 feet tall!

Shrinebuilder - Sorry, this was just plain boring. Sometimes the music would pick up and I’d get interested but then shit started to drag again and I didn’t really get enough of a contact high at all to enjoy it like others seemed to. It appeared I wasn’t the only one with this opinion either as others were slowly exiting the venue as well. I’d rather have seen Vitus again or Sleep, to be perfectly honest.

Overall - Decent fest, at least by Ohioan standards. I saw legendary bands and a few boring ones, but hey, it was free so I can’t really complain. The shuttle service was awesome and facilitated my movement from the Circus to Newport and back again. I got the Express Pass thing because my friends and I got to Columbus early but it turns out it wasn’t really necessary—I’m guessing the rain kept some people from coming. I’m pretty curious about how many people actually attended. I spent most of my time at Circus and saw one band each at Newport and at Skully’s and I’d estimate a few hundred people at most though probably not more than 1000.

A couple of days ago I went to see some local black metal bands in a bar:

Motheaten: This band was the only non-BM band on the bill, they played a more avantgarde/doom style. Kind of like Boris but with more emphasis on heavy doomy riffs. They weren't a bad band by any means but they seemed a bit out of place on the bill.

Belhor: The only thing I knew about this band was how their logo looked on the flyer, but I was pleasantly surprised. Their music was really dissonant and atmospheric, but played at Marduk speed (with a few slow parts thrown in there). However, the drums were just a little bit too triggered for my taste.

Acheronian Dirge: A damn good band, I knew that I should expect great modern BM and thats exactly what they did. A fantastic set, even though the vocalist's mic was too low in the first song.

Vision of Mara: A lot of improvements have been made on this band as a whole; last time I saw them they were wearing goofy looking corpse paint and keyboards completely drowned out the rest of the band. This time the guitars were much more audible and they're appearance didn't distract me from the music. There are still a few things they could do to improve their live performance but definitely a huge improvement since I'd seen them last.

Overall: A good show with an intimate setting, still enjoyable despite some minor technical difficulties.
8.5/10

I went to see these guys a couple of weeks ago at a small bar here in Québec. The show was part of a small Canadian tour and here they only had one opening band, Suicidal Drunken Bastards, whose music was, to put it simply, unmemorable shit. The venue's sound didn't help but I don't see how their music could really be enjoyable: a piss-poor form of heavy metal taking a lot of cues from hard rock bands like AC/DC and a general "we don't give a fuck about how we play" attitude made this band annoying as hell.

I was afraid that I wouldn't like Cauldron live since I hadn't really known the band beforehand except for some Myspace samples (and the venue's sound quality was also a discouraging factor) but they put on a phenomenally good show. The music was memorable, fun, and technically pleasing despite some technical difficulties with the guitar. It was even original, which for a band playing traditional rocking heavy metal is quite a feat. I also got their (only) album there and it's pretty damn good as well. Price wasn't too bad either: 20$ total (concert and album).

Silvanus were pretty funny, but that's practically all they were. I only caught the last few minutes of their set, but they were more of a gimmick band than a real music-playing band. Their blue facepaint and celtic costumes were a lot more interesting than their music.

Radamanthys were pretty cool. Decent death metal, good mosh pit, all the basics. One thing that irked me a bit though was when the [overweight] singer took of his shirt and declared he was sorry for cheating on his ex-girlfriend. Of course when he did it we all cheered, but looking back on it, it was pretty stupid.

Next up were White Wizzard, and damn! I'm not sure how much of my fanboyism will seep into this review of them, but they friggin' rocked the house! The music was intense, well-played, and they all made a constant show of headbanging and just generally being really interesting to watch. When they played "Out of Control", there was one of the craziest circle pits I could imagine going on, and rightly so.

After Wizzard, we had Swashbuckle, and for the second time I must say damn! Swashbuckle have to be the most entertaining band to see live; the people dressed in shark costumes, inflatable palm trees and pirate costumes are just hilarious. Oh yeah, and they entered while "I'm On A Boat" was playing. Fucking epic. But do their gimmicks and jokes outshine their actual performance? No, they played awesomely. There's just something about a morbidly obese man dressed as a pirate shouting into a microphone that screams "GO MOSH YOU FUCKER!", and I can tell I wasn't the only one who got that message . Bottom line: Swashbuckle rule live, go see them at any cost.

Tyr were pretty great. A lot of the metal brotherhood shit was going on during their set -- synchronized fist pumping by the audience along with "HEY! HEY! HEY!" etc.. All in all it was great intense fun, although Heri really stole the show from the rest of the band members. Guess that's what a frontman's for though, eh?

And finally, Korpiklaani. They were awesome in every way. Great music, played well, the sound was set up perfectly and the frontman's English ramblings in heavy Finnish accent were quite funny They played for a good few hours, and there was not a moment when I wasn't dancing jigs with strangers. I really think everyone who has a chance to should go see Korpiklaani, I don't know where else you can experience the authentic headbanging-jig-dancing thing going on there, and it was definitely worth it.

Exodus: I did not originally have high hopes for (Dukes...) but I was presently surprised. The band (Dukes included) sounded good, played a good setlist, and managed to not butcher the classics. The crowd was pretty intense during their set, with massive circle pits forming and even a wall of death during Strike of the Beast. My only complaints with them were that the vocals were almost impossible to hear, and that Dukes is beyond fucking annoying as a frontman. (Circle pits are good, but you don't need to call for one or make that stupid finger signal five times every song.) 8/10

Testament: Played all of my favorite album by them (The Legacy). They were awsome. Everybody sounded spot on. Glen Drover (filling in for Alex) nailed it. Chuck Billy has great stage presence, sounds great live, and his air guitar with the mike stand adds a nice touch. The only thing I would have changed would be playing Into the Pit or Souls of Black. 9/10

Megadeth: Playing all of Rust in Peace plus assorted other songs. Opened with This Day We Fight, played Wake Up Dead, then went straight into Rust in Peace. Played the entire album front to back. This was amazing for me as RIP is one of the top five albums I have ever heard, and some of my favorite songs off it (Polaris, Dawn Patrol, Five Magics) are never played in a normal Megadeth set. Mustaine sounded great, much better than when I saw him at Canadian Carnage last summer. Broderick nailed all of Friedman's solos, both technically and in feel. The solo in Tornado of Souls was as orgasmic live as it is on record. One of the major highlights of the show was the recently returned Dave Ellefson. He had great tone, and majorly contributed to an increase in the band's overall sound. He sounds much better playing Megadeth material then LoMenzo. Shawn Drover, while not in the spotlight, provided a solid performance on the drums. A major point was that, for the first time in the last four Megadeth shows, nobody did anything to piss Dave off like throw a drink on the mixing board. 9/10

Overall an amazing show, one of the best performances I have seen, and for once, a concert with no shitty openers. My only gripe other than some minor sound issues was that I payed the same price for a ticket as a shirt. I really wish more bands would play the entireties of their classic albums. 9/10 Overall

Guys ! to me any metal concert for a band I've heard about will be fucking awesome !
you know why ?
cuz here in our country there is nothing called metal, no live shows by local bands, no international band come here nothing at all,
I know it's fucking terrible, but we can do nothing..
therefore please stop complaining about concerts *just joking*

This was without a doubt one of the best live performances I've ever seen. My band was actually one of the openers for them, but once Death Row went on and the sound came crashing over us it almost made me forget about the fact that I was actually on that same stage earlier that night.

If you are not aware of who Death Row is, it's basically the 80s version of the legendary doom metal band Pentagram. Bobby Liebling joined up with this band Death Row in the the early 80s and eventually they changed their name to Pentagram because of the following Bobby had from his underground work in the 1970s. But really they are two different bands and they tour now as two distinct bands.

Anyway, I believe this was the first show Death Row has played in almost a decade. It was absolutely ridiculous. One of the heaviest things I've ever heard or experienced in my entire life. And what amazes me is that it was just three guys making this sound. I actually saw Pentagram with Bobby Liebling at the same venure a few months back and it was cool, but Death Row blew them out of the water.

Victor Griffin had such a great stage presence and he was wearing sunglasses which I thought was so fuckin' cool. His guitar tone is what it's all about. I mean Vitus is heavy, Sleep is pretty heavy, Trouble, etc. but they've got nothing on this, at least in live context. Marty Swaney on bass was incredible. His sound was like Mel Schacher, the bass player of Grand Funk, crossed with Black Sabbath. When Victor went into a solo, the sound from the bass took over and actually became the rhythm guitar. Joe Hasselvander on drums was great too. What I find really cool about his as a musician is that he plays in both Death Row/Pentagram as well as the NWOBHM band Raven, which requires a much different technique.

I would post the set list but I'm not as familar with the actual song titles, but I'll try and find it online if I can. I believe it consisted mostly of songs from the first three Pentagram studio albums, before Griffin left the band.

Anyway, if you ever get a chance to see Death Row live. Do it! Friggin' amazing. I can't believe we got to open for that.

This was one of those shows I eagerly awaited for quite some time and as it happened I couldn't quite believe that I was actually seeing these guys live. It was perfect. The opening band was some pathetic boring death metal act nobody cares about, and luckily they were the only other band that night.

Immortal's set was really long (1 hour and 40 minutes) and 100% of it kicked copious amounts of ass. The guys' performance, stage presence, everything was all there. Song selection was also excellent, although I'd have loved to hear some Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism or Damned in Black. The new album was, as expected, prominently featured, and the four killers from Sons of Northern Darkness were all present, to my eternal joy, especially Beyond the North Waves. The setlist was identical to the one in Toronto.

Overall a great concert and quite possibly the best I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.

Shows in bars often tend to be the most memorable ones (excluding festivals here), the crowd is smaller, there's usually some sense of camaraderie and the contact with the band is better. Nunslaughter was maybe the best show of the type I've attended. Jim Sadist was particularly talkative, nice and down to earth as well as had some of the coolest between songs banter I've witnessed with his demonic voice and laughter. "This is the last one for you tonight... let me finish! This is gonna be the last nun we slaughter for you tonight!" They've put a very tight and full of metal energy show, Zack Massacre literally playing in the middle of us sometimes when we were slamming or violently headbanging as drunken metalheads do.

Slaughter Strike was a death metal band in the same vein as Nunslaughter with short songs with very headbangable riffs and faster more grindy passages. They delivered a very solid performance and prepped us very well for metallic slaughter that ensued. Mesrine were the very first to play and felt relatively out of place. They play death-grind and while they did a good performance, I didn't really like their music as most of the people in there. All in all, this was a killer show and it's been some time since I had that much fun during a show.

Kamelot, supported by Leave's Eyes and Adagio, London Koko, Sunday 28th March

My first time seeing Kamelot, so I was seriously excited. Pretty stoked about hearing new material, checking out the new bassist and essentially getting to be in the same room as Roy Khan, one of my vocal inspirations. (aside...was going with my ex, since she'd bought the tickets back in October, so that wasn't ideal but still...it's Kamelot, you don't miss that for anything!)

We got into Koko a little late and Adagio were already playing. I'm not familiar with their work at all and wasn't overwhelmed I must say. I'd've described the music as slowish power metal with a strong keyboard presence; MA lists them as progressive/symphonic. The vocals were strong and there was some solid drumwork in particular. The guitar/bass sound could've done with some boosting, once the guitarist was soloing I felt the sound was rather thin but he had pretty good chops so it was enjoyable nonetheless. Their last song was their best by some way and I wish I could remember what it was... I'll probably check them out sometime - they were definitely enjoyable and had good presence. I'm sure I'd've got more into them if I'd been there from the start of their set...

Leave's Eyes up next.... Again, totally unfamiliar with their body of work. I had them pegged as some kind of Nightwish/Epica clones (I know that's an ignorant statement but it unfortunately tends to be my initial reaction to any band with a hottie in a corset out front...) based on what I could recall from metal magazines etc... Anyway, I found their set to be very hit and miss. Certain songs (though again, I've no idea which!) were tremendous, had us both jumping around, singing along once we'd discerned the words, headbanging in the more riff-based sections. Others though got no reaction from me at all. They seemed disjointed, with quieter interludes seemingly thrown in at random. Several times the band would stop in preparation for one of these and the crowd would cheer, assuming it was the end of the song. I guess that many people (like me) didn't have full familiarity with the band and their songs?

The male harsh vocals were another slightly sore point. In many songs, he seemed to have little to do other than roar the name of the song at certain points in the chorus, tending to spend the rest of the time out the front, fistpumping and working the crowd. This wasn't a real issue to be honest as that was pretty entertaining, but I felt that one of the guitarists may be able to cover the harsh vocals instead...? (As when I saw the far-superior Delain supporting Sonata Arctica back in December.) The majority of the band seemed strangely subdued, with little passion showing into their onstage personas. I guess having two front-people may necessitate that? Finally, Liv was an entertaining frontwoman. She has a great voice, though not as powerful as some of the operatic female singers you tend to hear. And at the risk of sounding too misogynist, she looks tremendous in a corsetted dress....

And finally....Kamelot, who I'd been looking forward to having seen for years now. Terrific setlist, with some of the best of their recent tracks....Ghost Opera and EdenEcho was a great opening one-two. The two new songs they played (whose names I forget) sounded very promising indeed, and it seems that they're continuing strongly along their recent symphonic/gothic evolution. Khan's vocal melodies were powerful and uplifting as usual, and one of the songs featured an awesome Youngblood guitar solo. The expected classics of Forever, Center of the Universe and Karma had the crowd going wild, I know I was jumping around and singing along like crazy. Terrific versions of these fantastic songs. The Haunting was excellent, and performed as a duet with the girl vocalist they're taking on tour with them...not sure who she is. She carried the bulk of the theatrical side of the show, performing drumming at the beginning of a brilliant and crushing rendition of March of Mephisto, belly-dancing (yes, I was confused too...) to open Rule the World and various other fun little interludes throughout. New bassist Sean Tibbetts is a total beast, really interacting with the crowd, fully axe-slinging his bass, and even busting out a slap-bass solo during the band's instrumental jam. This, along with a keyboard and (a frankly ridiculous) drum solo gave Khan chances to rest his voice and put on new and successively awesome leather trenchcoats - I expected to be irritated by this but the jam in particular was great and Khan's voice was powerful and pure all night long. My one gripe with the gig was arguably due to the venue - Koko's not the biggest inside and this meant there was no pyrotechnics of any kind and a rather limited lightshow. From Kamelot's DVD and other video I've seen of them, I was rather disappointed not to have a more immersive stageshow but the band really were firing on all cylinders and I couldn't fault them in any other way.

All in all, a fantastic evening of symphonic-tinged metal. Kamelot were the clear triumph, though my personal bias would've argued that anyway. I just wish they'd play more venues in the UK. Their last tour (can't believe I missed it!) had four or five shows instead of just one. Hopefully they'll make it back later in the year.

This was one of those shows I eagerly awaited for quite some time and as it happened I couldn't quite believe that I was actually seeing these guys live. It was perfect. The opening band was some pathetic boring death metal act nobody cares about, and luckily they were the only other band that night.

Immortal's set was really long (1 hour and 40 minutes) and 100% of it kicked copious amounts of ass. The guys' performance, stage presence, everything was all there. Song selection was also excellent, although I'd have loved to hear some Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism or Damned in Black. The new album was, as expected, prominently featured, and the four killers from Sons of Northern Darkness were all present, to my eternal joy, especially Beyond the North Waves. The setlist was identical to the one in Toronto.

Overall a great concert and quite possibly the best I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.

Damn your making me jealous, I wish I could've been there. Apparently they closed the normal set with my absolute favorite Immortal song (Withstand the Fall of Time). But that whole setlist is KILLER. They didn't waste one fucking second of their time it seems, and kicked serious ass.Pretty long too, which of course is great.

_________________"There is something vaguely homosexual about that picture, and what did you use for drums? Hub Caps?"-SteelCranium

This was one of those shows I eagerly awaited for quite some time and as it happened I couldn't quite believe that I was actually seeing these guys live. It was perfect. The opening band was some pathetic boring death metal act nobody cares about, and luckily they were the only other band that night.

Immortal's set was really long (1 hour and 40 minutes) and 100% of it kicked copious amounts of ass. The guys' performance, stage presence, everything was all there. Song selection was also excellent, although I'd have loved to hear some Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism or Damned in Black. The new album was, as expected, prominently featured, and the four killers from Sons of Northern Darkness were all present, to my eternal joy, especially Beyond the North Waves. The setlist was identical to the one in Toronto.

Overall a great concert and quite possibly the best I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.

Damn your making me jealous, I wish I could've been there. Apparently they closed the normal set with my absolute favorite Immortal song (Withstand the Fall of Time). But that whole setlist is KILLER. They didn't waste one fucking second of their time it seems, and kicked serious ass.Pretty long too, which of course is great.

Yeah, no Immortal set can be too long and even here there was a fuckload of songs that I'd have LOVED to hear, especially tracks from Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism, Damned in Black and hell, even some Blizzard Beasts would've been fun. I'd go see them again any day of the week. The ending with Blashyrkh was truly epic.

Decapitated, Psycroptic, Origin and Misery Index on Sunday night I had been exited for this for so long.

Origin were first up they wasted no time blasting straight into staring from the abyss and not letting up till the end. They played a good mix of songs including The Aftermath, Finite and closed with Portal. I fucking love origin on record but they are something else live the triple vocal attack and crazy riffage is just awesome the new singer they have did a pretty darn good job too.

Misery Index was next. I have only recently been getting into them so I only recognized a few songs. Played really well and have great stage presence they finished up with Conquistadors and Traitors which was fantastic and had everyone down the front going nuts.

Then it was Psycroptic's turn their newer songs sound a lot better live mainly because the vocals aren't quite as vulgar as on the record. they played a good set though switching song for song between Observant and Scepter which made me happy got to hear Lacertine Forest, Skin Coffin and the Color of Sleep.

Time for Decapitated now. The set list was pretty good covering all the albums but mostly organic and they play everything way faster live especially Spheres Of Madness. The new band members all did a fantastic job too. only complaint about them was they didn't play an encore which was pretty disappointing.

All in all fucking great night with a fantastic line up Origin was my favorite of the night and i got to meet Mike, John and the new singer. Also spoke with Sparky from Misery Index and the new guy from Decap.

I originally wrote these two for 2 live concert reviews I had to do for class. Understand that I had to write these to a non-metal loving audience. Also, we were only told to write on one band, so sorry ahead if the one you want to know about isn't in here.

Four bands labeled on the roster at Seattle’s underground venue, El Corazon, but I prefer to skip over the opening bands because I never go to a concert just to see them. It’s always the last two / three bands that concertgoers expect to see (or more depending on whether it’s a one-off concert or a festival). While the headlining band, Behemoth, tore the venue apart, I’ll focus on Septic Flesh, the band that took the stage before them, as they are also generally well-known in the underground metal scene. The band reformed only a couple years earlier after being disbanded for over half a decade. I had hardly heard any of their material before, and thoughts were rolling through my head on whether or not I’d enjoy the band, especially since I had never heard their newly released album. The air was fervent; dry-throated, fanatical metalheads left and right finally crowding the main floor that contained more than a few gaps from the two opening bands. Whereas everyone sort of took it easy for the first two bands, they were ready to break their necks in an effort to let out all their energy; everyday men and women spanning from high school teens to working class parents in on the gig.

Septic Flesh can be characterized as death metal with atmospheric and orchestral elements; not too unique in metal as a whole, but led a different way than most bands that take this route. As the band began setting up their instruments and performing sound checks, the crowd grew even more restless. I was positioned by this point (and for the remainder of the concert) in the very center-left of the main floor; I was right next to the moshpit and right behind this drunk fat woman who kept gyrating and doing stupid hoola-hoop rotations. I wanted to push her into the pit, but my chivalrous courtesy still held its ground in the faint, blackened concert hall. My neck was a little worn and I desperately needed water, especially since I was wearing three layers of clothing including my jacket (what the hell was I thinking?). Before I could make a move, the band was ready to go and there was no way I could escape: the crowd roared over the piercing frequencies already hovering in my ears, and above them the bellowing snarls of lead singer and bassist, Seth.

“Persepolis! You lost your crown!”

The mammoth-like guitar tone following his introduction rammed its way past the crowd and hit the walls like a sledgehammer. So ironed and precise while backed by brass / orchestra sampling that took everyone back to the days ancient Greece (sounds like a tense, grandiloquent build-up from any film based on ancient Greece or Rome). The pummeling drums that pounded my throat with a nick of air on every smack, kick, and crack was expected and never let up at all – probably the most consistent aspect of the music. Whereas the first two bands were a bit sloppy when it came to honing their sound, Septic Flesh were competent and professional – they knew exactly what they wanted to do and how to execute it. Nobody really wanted to stand out or go berserk with the first two bands, but all caution was thrown out the door as the moshpit finally started bumping everyone in radius with double bass pacing reaching machinegun speeds (and sounding like an M60 machinegun going off, at that).

Seth’s does hoarse, exhaled growls that are given pitch by jaw-restraint (if that makes any sense). Much of his highs come off the end of his growls, but most of the power is sparked by his stomach power and shot up from the bottom of his throat. This makes for a beastly, demonic roar rather than pig squealing and cookie monster growling that seems to be the most distinguished forms of growling known by fans. On this night he was up to strength on giving a performance that had little deviation from the studio recording (which I’m listening to right now), with the only major difference being the overemphasis on guitar intensity that is quite normal for metal concerts. Between solos and breaks Seth would do his best to get the crowd riled up with fervent, growled speeches and enthusiastic motions, with his fellow band doing very little speaking-wise; it felt like Seth was trying to rile up an army for battle.

Between the earthquake-rupturing bass and the exploding bursts of electricity on steel rods (guitars), I was sweating like crazy from my drenched chest to my soggy feet. The air in the building was becoming moist and rather hazy, thanks in no small part to the fog machine from the previous band. The lighting matched the mood of the songs: black to represent the bleakness and blue to succumb us all to an abyss in history – anyone who is deathly afraid of the dark would have hated standing in there crammed between other smelly, sweaty people. However, that was the fun of it all and anyone going to a metal concert with internationally known underground bands expects this. The riffs themselves felt like punches to the ears – a stabbing motion of a hammer that attempts in vain to reach my ear drum.

By the end of the band’s set, I was worn out. Seth’s compliments for coming out that night was met with genuine applause, devil horns (hand motion), and myself becoming a quick new fan. The night wasn’t over by another hour or so, but it marked the beginning of the end. Behemoth would steamroll over our expectations that night, but Septic Flesh proved that they could hold their own. If I wasn’t drenched in sweat the and behind some fat woman obscuring my view the whole time, then I’m certain I would have enjoyed it even more.

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gomorro wrote:

Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

Last edited by OzzyApu on Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:02 pm, edited 7 times in total.

Just over a week after the Septic Flesh / Behemoth concert, I returned to Seattle’s El Corazon venue to hang out with a buddy who talked me into going. I never planned for it, so I just showed up hoping to get tickets at the door (luckily, I got one off a seller an hour before they opened the doors). Knowing that I’d be destroyed like the last concert because of my spot and what I was wearing, I went in wearing only the bare minimum: a t-shirt, jeans, and my combat boots. I ended up buying a shirt from the band I intended to see that night (Immolation) coincidentally from the lead singer at the merchant booth, but I didn’t realize at the time that it was him. The setting was familiar once again, but this time I put on my newly purchased Immolation shirt and headed straight for front and center right along the stage – no one would ever dethrone me from this position for the remainder of the night.

Like the last concert, not once did I use the restroom. I wasn’t wearing a ton of clothing that’d make me sweat profusely, and standing in the front means that nothing gets between you and being within reaching distance of the band members (particularly the lead member). However, this also means that everyone who’s dancing, moshing, and fighting behind you will continuously put pressure forward, and me being in the middle means that I bear every bit of it. By the time Nile got up on stage, the lower half of my body was literally crushed and stuck between the unpadded stage and a bunch of random, sweaty strangers behind me. I was forced to stand at a 35 degree angle as the crowd grew reckless and careless behind me, resting my upper body on the speaker box at the very front. I was within the eyes of the lead singer / guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade and lead member Karl Sanders, who had an array of guitar pedals and a computer monitor that he was hell-bent on using to the fullest.

Of course being the guy wearing and Immolation shirt at the very front of a crowd that specifically came to see Nile wasn’t the best idea, so no one felt any remorse nailing me to that stage; I took the one spot they all envied and I wasn’t going to give it up. Throughout the hour long set of Nile I was felt like all the water I drank during the preparation phase in the car before the concert was squished in my stomach, and whatever I had the previous night was in a stalemate, as well; the position wasn’t very comfortable, to say the least. Pack on the fact that I was dehydrated like crazy, sweating once more (with drops hitting my eyes, which isn’t pleasant), and attempted to hold my head above Dallas’ boots with a sore neck, and all I can say is that I was asking for it – no moshpits or fat chicks to get caught between.

Aside from taking longer than usual to set up the guitars, George Kollias (the drummer) was up earlier than his band mates for his drum-check routine, which consisted of steady slams and kicks that rocked my chest like a shockwave from a hand grenade (and I really know what that feels like). Every bash of the snares had this fast-declining echo and machinegun bursts of double bass. Tons of fans behind me threw smart-ass remarks, as they would the entire show, but they were just enjoying it as much as I was watching it. Nile isn’t a particular favorite of mine, but when they eventually got on, I could feel their monolithic presence. The rays of pale crimson and oceanic blue lighting helped dab the shots of antiquity on the scene, which of course makes sense because Nile is a band whose lyrics consist mostly of ancient Egyptian themes. Standing tall and pretty buff was Dallas, who took every rule in the book to get the crowd pissed off and craving for more (while making call-backs to fans remarks about shaving his head).

As for the music, Nile plays a technical brand of death metal that involves a lot of progression while still abiding to the #1 rule of death metal: heavy playing. Compared to Behemoth’s more groove-oriented sound in the last concert, Nile opt for a punishing, relentless barrage of chaotic riffs and high-pitched sweeps by Sanders and his squad of guitar pedals; Dallas performs most of the vocals and riffs while Sanders takes on almost all of the solos and procedural duties (apparently requiring several guitars that call for switches after every song). However, for one specific moment I was able to lure Sanders over with a claw and once he noticed it he moved on over with a smile and performed a solo just for me (the call of metal is dubious and unknown to outsiders).

Obviously, their sound on record is much more refined and deafening, but in a live setting it has much more room to encircle like a swarm of locusts. The amplifiers were grand and potent, like bombs going off in a building (for every pluck of the lower guitar strings). After four bands straight playing at nearly this level, my ears were on their last legs for sure – the shellshock sound of earsplitting frequencies already took their toll on my ears, but even they couldn’t drown out the slithering harmonies and sandy tunes. Every bash from Kollias felt like they were bouncing off the walls and hitting me from both sides like a pincer attack, but at the same time the amplifiers were pushing me back. The crowd was no doubt going crazy with pits the size of classrooms, and I only made a few glances back to see what I was up against; there was no way to escape, but I wasn’t looking for a way out, either.

While I was at the front leaning on the speaker box, I could see the set list before anyone else. Every time Dallas checked to see what song to play next, he had to face me acting crazy and pointing right at the next song. Most of the time he gave me hawk eyes and then relayed the next song back to the crowd, but once in a while he’d just smile, tired and ready to give it his all for every song. There were about a dozen songs they played that night, most of which were from their previous three albums; only two songs were played from the two before the previous three, and nothing was played from the debut album. Once again I wasn’t a huge fan of the band, so anything they played was pretty much in my ballpark of enjoyment; the ones I was familiar with they ended up playing, so extra points for them.

Hard to imagine looking back on it that my ears were able to take that much noise, especially after bombardment from the previous four bands. My body was beyond weakened to the point where I struggled keeping my head and spine up when I walked back to my car and drove back home after the concert. I’ve endured hand grenade, claymore, and C4 explosions (among others) at pretty close ranges, but the raucous noise of the guitar riffs were bar none some of the loudest I’ve ever heard. They were also continuous and lasted four to six minutes (song lengths), whereas explosions come and go within a matter of seconds. In both cases, you’re left shivering in your shoes; I wasn’t as exhausted as I was during the previous concert, but my body was worn out nonetheless and I still had to go to school the next day. The wretched, psychotic vocals done by Dallas still bounced around in my head well into the next day.

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gomorro wrote:

Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

Last edited by OzzyApu on Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Oh yeah I should have mentioned that we were only told to write on one band. Yeah, forgot to put that in there. Well, to answer your question, Immolation were fantastic. I went there specifically to see them, bought a shirt directly from Ross, and we shook hands twice that night: one after the purchase and another after the performance. As far as I know, I was the only one with an Immolation shirt in the first row, and after they were done playing he came directly to me first and thanked me.

Their performance was less epic (in scope) compared to Nile. Nile had the lighting and ambient openers and huge wall of sound while Immolation were more precise and to the point. Less light tricks and fan interaction (compared to Nile) and more focus on the music and enjoying the riffs. Ross is really shorter than I thought, too, but his hair is extremely long - still a really nice guy, too. Vigna was also really nice and always had a smile - he was all alone on his side, but he kept the crowd on that end pleased.

_________________

gomorro wrote:

Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

For those of you who don't know Slutvomit, anytime your in the Northwest you should be at one of their shows. They're a very solid Black Metal band in the veign of old Sarcofago, Hellhammer, Mayhem, etc. While mand a few friends tore up the pit in the begining of their set, it died down after people started moving towards the front. Anyone living in or visiting the Northwest should catch one of their shows.

Deathraid had to be one of the most intense local band I've ever seen. I must have gotten hit, shoved, and thrown into the wall, speakers or band members numerous times.

Golers were insane, and had somewhat of a dark sense of humour too. Before each song they claimed it was about fucking your sister or incest

Pretty much everyone left before Toxic Holosuck came on, myself included.

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Zodijackyl wrote:

A girl invited me to "Sleep with her" and I ended up at a stoner doom show.

Bah, you're not my friend anymore. TH are a fun band and I've heard they're great live. I'll find out for myself in a few weeks when I see them with Municipal Waste. Anyway, on to the review...

Bison B.C., Black Cobra, Priestess and High on Fire at the Black Cat in D.C. 4/11/2010

Doors opened around 8 and Bison B.C. took the stage soon after. Based on their promo pics I was expecting them to be a bunch of hipsters but instead the impression that I got was that they're a group of people very, very into drugs. Their equipment was all beat to shit. Both guitars and the bass were First Act Wal-Mart specials; the bass was duct-taped together and missing the high string and its tuning peg. Really enjoyed the bands heavy stoner riffing though the later songs in the set incorporated more post-metal types of segments (although the sound was consistently heavy and rooted in stoner metal riffing). During the second song or so the bassist (who played with a pick and played a lot of chords) was lurching all around and I was kind of afraid he wasn't going to make it through the set. He did fall into a monitor at one point and broke his low string though he managed to translate the riffs and swap basses (switching from his First Act to a similar beat-to-shit Epiphone) without screwing up the song, which was pretty neat. That madman bassist was the most interesting part of the set and took it from pretty enjoyable to genuinely entertaining.

Black Cobra came on next. Good god that drummer beats the living hell out of his drums. I was really surprised he only broke one stick during the set. I'm not really familiar with the band's work, having only heard a few scattered songs here and there, but the impression I got is that the duo seemed determined to fill up any "holes" in their sound that might be created due to there only being two people in the band. Standard punk and rock drumbeats had all the empty space filled with thundering toms and Landrian's guitar work, which would have been something like a slightly more chaotic sludge, had its gaps filled in with open-string rumbling. The band never said a word and never took breathers between songs and the result was a straight blast of fury. Definitely one of those "why the HELL haven't I listened to this band before?" kind of moments. If Black Cobra are capable of coming anywhere near this level of rage and fury recorded as they did live, I'll be a happy man. Their set was definitely an unexpected highlight.

Priestess, well. They played well, at least. The drummer and rhythm guitarist had a lot of charisma and great stage presence but the frontman and bassist seemed bored to tears. What didn't help is that so was I, through the first half of their set anyway. Slightly stoner-flavored classic rock worship, really. The frontman could lay down some interesting lead work but the guitars were pretty quiet in the mix (probably didn't help that I was directly in front of the bass stack, I guess). After the brutal assault of Black Cobra this band just seemed so safe and tame by comparison. Luckily, I guess they loaded the back half of their set with some of their faster, more metal-oriented material that was a hell of a lot more fun than mid-tempo pseudo-balladry. I get a feeling this band might be pretty popular outside of metal circles so who knows where their sound will go but hopefully they'll take the crowd's positive feedback to their more aggressive (and better) material to heart for future recordings.

High on Fire. What can you say, really? They played flawlessly (and yes, Matt Pike's ridiculously chaotic soloing counts ans flawless musicianship in this context). The stuff off of the new album was AWESOME in the live context where you can really compare the band's material song-for-song without having to deal with production discrepancies. I don't remember the exact song order, but these are the songs even if the order isn't quite right: "Frosthammer," "Devilution," "How Dark We Pray," "Yeti," "Rumors of War," "Fire, Flood and Plague," "Hung, Drawn and Quartered," "Fireface," "Cometh Down Hessian," "Blood From Zion," "Snakes for the Divine," "Bastard Samurai," and closer "Fury Whip." I would have liked to hear "Baghdad," "10,000 Years," and "Death Is This Communion" but otherwise the setlist was fantastic. Matt Pike played his 9-string First Act the whole time (he used a different black one that was in a drop tuning for Bastard Samurai) which surprised me because I thought he tended to play Gibsons live. Jeff used a 12-string bass for some songs which was pretty cool. Des laid down an avalanche of drums as you'd expect him to. Basically, if you get an ounce of enjoyment out of High on Fire on record, you'll get ten tons of fucking AWESOME by seeing them live.

So, last night I went to see Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Swallow the Sun and local band Valknacht. I had long wondered whether I should shell out the money for this show, considering that my love of Finntroll music is severely limited, but I decided I wouldn't let a bad band stop me from seeing several great ones. It was a good decision, I guess.

I'll review the bands in order of appearance.
Valknacht(8.0/10), a local folk metal band from Québec which I had already seen, played a very short set of their cool music, a rather original and energetic take on the folk metal played by European bands. They're seven in the band and they all performed very well last night, overall a pleasant show with the added bonus that it wasn't long enough to get boring.

Swallow the Sun(8.5/10). These guys are part of the reason I went to see this concert in the first place and I wasn't disappointed. They performed their stuff with class and talent, creating a solid doom metal atmosphere throughout. The singer looks a bit like a hipster but he's got talent, great growls and cleans, which the rest of the band proved effective as well. I liked that they played an enormous amount of songs from the only STS album what I actually have heard, New Moon. Of course, many of the people in the venue (remember, this is a Finntroll tour...) found them boring and sleep-inducing. A few songs were indeed a bit... long... but overall the entire thing was very good and enjoyable.

Moonsorrow(9.5/10) played an awesome fucking show. They were my number one reason to be there last night and I wasn't disappointed. It lasted a bit over an hour and everything was flawless, as per Moonsorrow tradition. The setlist was their usual selection of classics and portions from the last album and EP, nothing surprising there. Also, it was a bit annoying to witness and be subjected to the moshing and... other activities... of the Finntroll people during Moonsorrow's set. Call me a traditionalist, but Moonsorrow isn't exactly mosh material.

Finally we come to Finntroll(4.5/10). I wasn't certain of staying during the whole set and indeed, as they started with one of the blandest songs in existence (translated live, their folk metal becomes a very generic kind of death metal with the occasional keyboard passage) I left for a bank in order to get some cash and buy CDs from Moonsorrow and Valknacht. Upon my return 30 minutes later, they played Trollhammaren (good song, fun stuff) and one or two enjoyable numbers among the 7-8 tracks left. One thing I have to give the band is the frontman's stage presence. He might be a bit skinny, but he sure knows how to fire up a crown and even did some crowd-surfing and welcomed stage divers to come up. The rest of the band have a similar, enjoyable presence, and during a song Ville from Moonsorrow came and rocked with them, which was cool. Good stage behavior doesn't excuse poor music, however, and the entire thing was tolerable at best except for the aforementioned few songs (Trollhammaren, Ursvamp, Svartberg).

One final note concerning all this, the fans present. Now, I realized that folk metal tends to draw a very special crowd, composed of metalheads who try to have some kind of folk... thing... going on. These fans, who I call folk metal faggots or, to take a band name, Finntroll faggots, are some of the most disturbingly annoying people in the world. Between midgets with Ensiferum tatoos on their backs, cretins in kilts and Down syndrome-affected folk dancers, one feels like in a massive retard party. They combine standard moshing with folk dancing, a kind of idiotic behavior best compared to hardcore dancing but by people who try to look like they're during some medieval folk festival. It fails and makes one wonder "what the hell am I doing here". Beyond their clothing, they can be spotted by excessive love for bands like Finntroll, Korpiklaani, Alestorm, the awful awful Blackguard and, unfortunately for the less stupid fans of the following excellent bands, also Ensiferum, Tyr, Moonsorrow, Primordial, etc. Eluveitie and Turisas are also bands frequently loved by these people, but in their case the music is actually rather good (sometimes).

Last Saturday was the CD release show for Edmonton's #1 true metal force, STRIKER for their debut album Eyes in the Night, and it was a fucking blast! Support came from two Calgary bands: HROM, and KOBRA AND THE LOTUS. I managed to get to the venue in time to see all three bands after some serious pregame drinking, so here goes.

HROM is a young, energetic power/speed metal band from Calgary, Canada sporting some solid tunes straight from the Walls of Jericho, Scanner, Not Fragile and Chroming Rose vein. True german-styled steel just as the mid-80's intended! Hrom's debut album Blesk was released in 2009 through STEEL LEGACY records and the band played through most of the songs on this album, including "Through the Universe," "Ultimate Fighter," "Burn Slowly," "Rainstorm" (Twice! haha) and a couple new tunes not yet recorded. Hrom was a lot of fun and while they weren't super energetic onstage due to space restrictions from Striker's gear they still put on pretty entertaining show with very tight guitar solos and excellent live vocals, and tons of sing-alongs. I knew some of their songs from myspace, and their recordings (done entirelly by the singer, Jan) do NOT do justice to the songs, they must be heard live! Jan's falsetto wails are excellent! I was able to meet up with some of the members for a few beers after their set and they are awesome gents all around.

Calgary local traditional "metal" barbie dolls KOBRA AND THE LOTUS took to the stage second. A 5-piece group consisting of Calgary tightest and (formerly) most respected drummer, a transvestite guitarist, some bossa-nova bassist, a generic bald rhythm guitarist and a rich-bitch hottie on vocals, Kobra and the Lotus are the reigning scourge on Canada's metal scene. Everything about this band is false, and plastic and contrived. They are a true example of the term "money talks" but their music speaks for nothing but shit. Horrible chipmunk vocals, paired with bland, tired cookie-cutter music with an extremely "professional" sheen to it all. I would totally let the singer sit on my face though. Check them out if you want, but why would you do that when you could be listening to STRIKER or HROM?

Finally, the mighty STRIKER took to the stage with all guns blazing. All full-length set with tunes from Road Warrior and their debut album, Eye in the Night with Dan's incredible wails, searing dual-leads from Chris and Ian, and the thunderous rhythm section of Magnus and Dave. Wasting no time, they leapt into tunes like "Full Speed or No Speed" and "Eyes in the Night" featuring all manner of glorious power screams and guitar solos, all immaculately performed. Stiker is Canada's REAL DEAL! For in uninitiated, Striker plays 80's speed metal with some USPM touches and a few really tasteful sleazy cock-rock moments. Think bands such s HIBRIA, RACER X, VICIOUS RUMORS, IRON MAIDEN and so on for some ideas. You can tell that these dudes live, and die by metal music and they are doing their best to live their dream. You can tell by the idiot grins on their faces during their synchronized guitar points, whirlwind headbangings and gang vocals. Other tunes they played included "We Don't Play by the Rules," "The Voice of Rock," "Never Ending Nights," "The White Knight," and "Terrorizer" from the new disk and they threw in "Lord of the Sword," "Fire,", "Dark Heart of the City" from their EP using "The Keg that Crushed New York" as an encore with a nifty rendition of "Aces High" by Maiden as well. Sadly, the title of their EP "Road Warrior" was left out, unless I just happened to miss it in my drunken stupor. Striker are full of vigour and wild musical energy and they are all over the place onstage with a charmisma only matched by the masters. They left out a few of their more risky stage moves for this gig (High-fives during harmony solos in "Never Ending Nights" and Ian leaning backwards during his "Terrorizer" solo while Dan holds him up) which was a little disappointing, but they played unbelievably tight which more than makes up for it. If you call yourself a fan of TRUE METAL you'd better get your hands on "Eyes in the Nights" and their EP!